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COPYRIGHT 1924 BY 
JOHN MARTIN S HOUSE. INC. 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



SEP " 8 (324 



©C1A801718 



ERE begins the tale of Tajar. 

By the way, it seems to me, Dears, 
That the front or the beginning 
Isn’t where a tail should be, Dears! 
Never mind, the tale of Tajar 
Is too nice to bear a changing; 
Tajar is your Tajar •, Children, 

He won’t mind your rearranging. 
You will love the funny Tajar, 

To all other beasts a stranger. 
And you’ll grow exceeding fond of 
Mrs. Witch and old Range Ranger. 
Yes, Dears, yesmum, you will luvum; 

But wherewith and ne’ertheless, Sir, 
What betid and happened next, Sir, 
I’ll leave you to guess, Sir— yessir! 

































NCE upon a time there 
was a Tajar, Do you 
know what a Tajar 
is? Well, he’s some¬ 
thing like a tiger, and 
something like a jaguar, and some¬ 
thing like a badger; and if you should 
see him once, you would forget what 
he looked like, but if you should see 
him twice you would forget to forget 
what he looked like, and that would 
be quite fatal. 

The Tajar lived somewhere near 
a Camp—in a Camp and around a 
Camp and under a Camp and over a 






Camp, and all the places where a 
Camp was, he lived, except when he 
stayed in his Hiding Place, which 
was somewhere between the bottom 
of a tree and the top of the sky. 

When the Campers were in Camp, 
the Tajar stayed in his Hiding Place; 
but when they were away, and when 
he got bored with his Hiding Place 
and was filled with folly, he used to 
come out and dance in the moonlight. 

And one beautiful moonlight night 
when the Campers were still in 
Camp, but the Tajar was exceeding¬ 
ly filled with folly, he came out of 
his Hiding Place and danced in the 
moonlight. And he danced and he 





danced. And some of the Campers 
saw him once, and the Chief Camper 
almost saw him twice and so almost 
forgot to forget what he looked like 
—but not quite. 

But the Range Ranger, who 
ranged the ranges in that region, 
looked across the ranges and saw; 
the foolish Tajar dancing in the 
moonlight, and he came across to the 
Camp, and he called, “Tajar! Tajar!” 

And the Tajar answered, “Yes- 
sir.” 

And the Range Ranger said, “Ta¬ 
jar, Tajar, didn’t you know you 
weren’t to dance in the moonlight 
when the Campers were in Camp, no 


« 





matter how filled with folly you 
might be?” 

And the Tajar said, “Yessir,” 
very sad. 

Then the Range Ranger sat down, 
and he took out a needle and a long 
thread and he took a tuck in the 
Tajar’s right front leg, and then he 
took another tuck in the Tajar’s left 
front leg, but, of course, it was magic 
and didn’t hurt. Then he said, “Now, 
no matter how filled with folly you 
may be, you can no longer dance in 
the moonlight, for the tucks make 
your legs too short, and they won’t 
reach.” 

And the Range Ranger put the 



T6u<2 










Tajar in his Hiding Place, and he 
went away over the Ranges, and 
there was no more dancing for the 
foolish Tajar that season! 

Then the Campers went to town, 
and the Range Ranger, who really 
wasn’t so severe as he seemed, used to 
put up a Ladder Thing so that the 
Tajar could get in and out of his 
Hiding Place by himself, whenever 
he wanted to. And whenever the 
last Camper was half way to the 
station, and just a little hit more, 
the Range Ranger would put up the 
Ladder Thing and the Tajar could 
do as he liked. 

The first time after that that the 



✓ 


I' 






Tajar was filled with folly, he came 
out of his Hiding Place and began 
to dance in the moonlight. First he 
tried dancing on his four legs, the 
way he used to; but he found that 
the tucks in his front legs made his 
dancing uneven, and besides, it made 
him seasick. 

He tried dancing on his hind legs, 
hut that made his knees ache. 

Then he tried dancing on his front 
legs, but that made him dizzy; and all 
the folly ran to his head. 

Then he sat down on the ground 
and put his head on his knees, and 
all he needed was a little sympathy 
to discourage him completely. 



Up hx& ^ELOuld^t'^r. 





Presently the Range Ranger came 
along. The Tajar heard him com¬ 
ing, and humped up his shoulders, 
all the more discouraged. Then the 
Range Ranger stood behind him and 
said, “Tajar! Tajar 1” 

And the Tajar said, “Yessirl”— 
very sad. 

And the Range Ranger said, “Be¬ 
fore I’d be so stupid as to have only 
one way of amusing myself!” 

And the Tajar said, “Yessir!”— 
very meek, but he was really very in¬ 
dignant inside. 

AND 

Then the Range Ranger went 
away, and the Tajar sat up and said 






I 





to himself, ‘Til show that old Range 
Ranger that I have lots of ways of 
amusing myself!” Which was exact¬ 
ly what the Range Ranger expected 
he would do. 

Then the Tajar tried inventing new 
ways of amusing himself. He thought 
and he thought. He thought of sev¬ 
eral ways, but they weren’t good 
enough. But finally he thought of a 
perfectly new way, and he said, “I 
know what I will do! I’ll take death- 
defying-life-leaps through the branch¬ 
es.” 

He tried, and the first time he 
took them with his front feet, but he 
found the tucks began to rip and it 





made him nervous. And then he 
tried with his hind feet, but he found 
he couldn’t see where he was going, 
and besides, he needed his hind feet 
to push off with. 

At last he said to himself, “I know 
what I will do! I’ll take death-defy- 
ing-life-leaps through the branches 
with my tail ” 

Sure enough, that’s what he did: 
he went swinging through the trees 
at a great rate, taking death-defy- 
ing-life-leaps with his tail, and found 
it most enjoyable. Presently he 
went swinging down near the camp, 
and he found that was a splendid 
place to play. 



Look oui iov ih<z T 


' '■? 



After a while, the Range Ranger 
came along, and saw the Tajar flying 
through the branches, and he said, 
“Tajar! Tajar!” 

And the Tajar said, “Yessir!” 

And the Range Ranger said, “Ta¬ 
jar, are you enjoying yourself?” 

And the Tajar said, “ Yessir1 ”— 
very proud. 

The Range Ranger said, “Take 
care you don’t tear your tail on some 
of the nails put in by Kenneth, the 
Tallest Camper.” 

And the Tajar said, “Yessir!”— 
and the Range Ranger went away. 

Then the Tajar said to himself, “I 
wonder where the branches are that 





0 

11 stayed vavy 




Kenneth put the nails in,” and he 
went to find out. And he went swing¬ 
ing more and more around the camp. 
He found that a lovely place to swing 
was from the Old Dead Tree to the 
frame over the dining-room table. 
He leaped back and forth, but there 
was a little nail in the frame, and 
it caught on his tail and his tail 
tore a little, but the Tajar pretended 
not to notice. 

But the next time, he took an ex¬ 
tra long swing, and his tail caught 
on that nail and it tore so badly that 
it tore all the way through, and a 
piece of it fell down on the ground 
on one side of the branch, and the 


Tajar and the rest of the tail fell 
down on the other side of the branch, 
but, of course, it was magic and didn’t 
hurt. The Tajar lit on the ground 
very hard, and he got up looking 
very thoughtful. 

Then the Tajar was much dis¬ 
tressed. He picked up the end of 
his tail and wondered how he could 
fasten it on. 

First he tried with safety-pins that 
he found near the camp, but they 
seemed to tear out. Then he tried 
with string, but that was too thin. 
Then he found some tape, and he 
wound it round and round his tail, 
and he tied it with string, and pinned 


it all with a safety-pin, and he found 
that it stayed very nicely and was 
quite secure. 

But nevertheless, after that he was 
careful not to swing on the branches 
where Kenneth, the Tallest Camper, 
had put in the nails. 




amm 
















TFTER the winter-time 
came and the Campers 
had all gone, a Witch 
came to the Camp. 
She looked about, and 
she saw the Camp, and she knew it 
was exactly the kind of place she 
would like to spend the winter in. 
She went down to the kitchen and 
she saw an old, dead, bare tree, and 
she thought to herself, “That is ex¬ 
actly the kind of tree I like to live 







in during the winter, because it is 
magic and keeps off the weather.” 

So the W ; tch started housekeep¬ 
ing in the old dead tree. First of all, 
she dusted very carefully. After that 
she got out her tea-things and made 
herself a cup of tea. Then she felt 
quite at home. 

All this time the Tajar was watch¬ 
ing her from behind a tree, but he 
didn’t quite come near enough for 
her to see him twice and forget to 
forget what he looked like. At last, 
fearing the Range Ranger would be 
angry with him, he sneaked away 
very quietly. 

But presently, when the Witch 



"Worried 




went out for a walk, the Tajar was 
filled with folly and he came out and 
danced in the moonlight, when he 
didn’t think the Witch was looking. 
(He had learned to dance quite well 
again in spite of the tucks.) But the 
Witch came back, and she saw him 
dancing in the moonlight. She got 
one good look at him, and then the 
Tajar saw her and he hurried to his 
Hiding Place just as fast as he could 
possibly go. 

Then the Witch said to herself, 
“That was a most unusual animal. I 
will go home and think about him.” 
She went home to her tree, and she 
settled down and began to think 



}{<c tL.'flju'* a* <31 —> 



about the Tajar. She thought and 
she thought, but she couldn’t remem¬ 
ber what he looked like, and the more 
she thought about him the less she 
could remember. As more and more 
she thought without remembering, 
she grew terribly anxious and ex¬ 
cited, and was afraid she was losing 
her mind. She worried about it 
dreadfully for a number of days. 

Well, one night it was a beautiful 
night, and the Witch forgot her 
troubles and went sound asleep. The 
moon came out, and the Tajar was 
filled with folly. He came out of his 
Hiding Place, and he crept up very 
quietly to make sure that the Witch 







was asleep. When he was sure that 
she was asleep, he danced in the 
moonlight; and he danced and he 
danced. He danced on his hind legs 
and he danced on his forelegs, and 
finally he went and took death-defy- 
ing-life-leaps with his tail. Then the 
Witch woke up, and she saw the 
Tajar. She got another good look at 
him, and she got down out of her 
tree, and she said, “Tajar! Tajar!” 

And the Tajar was terribly 
startled, and he said, “Yessir!” 

And the Witch said, “Yes Ma'am, 
stupid!” 

And the Tajar said, “Yes Ma’am!” 

And the Witch said, “Tajar, Ta- 




jar, now I know why I forgot what 
you looked like. You have given me 
a great deal of unnecessary worry. 
Now I will give you a taste of your 
own medicine.” 

And the Tajar said, “Yes sir!” 

Then the Witch did a Magic all 
around the Tajar, and she pinned a 
Magic on the Tajar’s back. “Now,” 
she said, “you are quite invisible. You 
won’t even be able to see what you 
look like yourself.” 

And sure enough it was true. The 
Tajar wouldn’t even have known he 
had tucks unless he felt of them. 

At first the Tajar liked it because 
he could come up behind the Witch 








and make her jump when she didn’t 
know he was there. And he could 
get up close and catch the chipmunks, 
without their even knowing he was 
coming. And once he saw a bird go¬ 
ing by in the air, and he jumped up 
and caught that. 

But still, after a while, he found 
that it was a nuisance, because he 
couldn’t even see his own legs, and 
when he was taking death-defying- 
life-leaps, he was never sure that his 
tail had caught on the branches unless 
he felt of it. And this delayed him 
a good deal. 

One day the Range Ranger came 
to the Camp. He saw the Witch’s 



Looked &rbuia& Cok Taj &x 






things, and he was very angry, for 
Range Rangers hate Witches, be¬ 
cause, they say, they infest the woods. 
Then he looked around for the Tajar, 
but he couldn’t see him anywhere. He 
was very angry for fear the Witch 
had hurt the Tajar, and he called the 
Witch. 

He said, “Madam Witch! Madam 
Witch!” 

And she said, “Yes.” 

He said, “Yes sir/' 

She was very angry, but she said, 
“Yes sir/* because every one, sooner 
or later, does what the Range Ranger 
says. 

Then the Range Ranger said, 


























“Madam Witch, Madam Witch! 
Where is the Tajar?” 

And the Witch said, “Oh, off in the 
woods somewhere.” 

Then the Range Ranger said, 
“Madam Witch, Madam Witch, 
where is the Tajar?” And the Witch 
said, “How do I know! He is off in 
the woods somewhere, I suppose.” 

And the Range Ranger said the 
third time, “Madam Witch, Madam 
Witch, where is the Tajar?” And he 
looked at her very hard. The third 
time he said it, she started and 
looked away, and he knew she knew 
more about it than she pretended to. 

Then the Range Ranger went to 



UV’T&mxvT !!’!! H! ff 


4 





the tree and took up a large axe, and 
he swung it over his head. And 
he said, “Madam Witch, Madam 
Witch! are you fond of your tree?” 

The Witch was terribly excited, 
and she said to the Range Ranger, 
“Oh, don’t cut down my tree! It is 
much the best I ever had—and it 
keeps off the weather.” 

Then the Range Ranger said, 
“Very well, where is the Tajar?” 

And the Witch said, “He is all 
right. Call him.” 

The Range Ranger put his hands 
to his mouth, and he called very loud, 
“Tajar! Tajar!” and the Tajar said, 
“Yessir!” right close beside them and 
made them both jump. 



yonjnr iLa^-1 










Then the Witch did a Magic, and 
she unpinned the Magic off the Ta¬ 
tar’s back, and suddenly he appeared, 
and the Range Ranger jumped. 
There was a twinkle in the Tajar’s 
eye because he knew the joke was on 
the Range Ranger. And there was 
a twinkle in the Witch’s eye because 
she knew the joke was on the Range 
Ranger. And there was a very small 
twinkle in the Range Ranger’s eye 
because he knew the joke was on 
himself. 

Then the Range Ranger looked the 
Tajar all over carefully, and he said, 
“Tajar, Tajar, is your tail getting on 
all right?” And the Tajar said, “Yes- 



sir!” Then the Range Ranger went 
away. 

But the next time that the Range 
Ranger came to Camp, he saw the 
Tajar and the Witch walking along, 
arm in arm, the best of friends. 









Mow ths JL&jar 

L-CcirTwd io 5wim 


T WAS like this: 
Once that winter 
there was a very bad 
storm. And the 
Witch’s tree blew 
down and all the Witch’s housekeep¬ 
ing things were scattered over the 
landscape. And the Tajar was very 
much excited. He jumped about 
and got in the way and watched the 
Witch pick things up. 

But when the Witch began to pile 







More TWaita defying leap^ 




things up neatly, the Tajar looked at 
the piles, and he saw the high pile of 
wobbly teacups. He said to him¬ 
self, “I think it would be a good time 
for me to take death-defying-life- 
leaps, a long way off.” And the 
Tajar went and took death-defying- 
life-leaps through the branches with 
his tail. 

The Witch went off and she found 
a new tree. When she got all ready 
to move, she said, “Tajar, Tajar, 
come and help me move.” 

As the Tajar didn’t answer, 
she said louder, “Tajar, Tajar!” 
But the Tajar didn’t come. Then 
the Witch was very indignant, and 



Pile of wob&ly tea cu P r 



she did a swift and sudden Magic, 
and the Tajar landed in front of her, 
all out of breath and very much 
astonished. 

Then the Witch said to the Tajar, 
“Just for that, all afternoon you 
have to help me move.” And she 
gave the Tajar a high pile of wobbly 
teacups, just the way he thought she 
would; and he had to help her all the 
afternoon long, and besides, she was 
very cross. 

But when the Witch was all 
moved, the Tajar said to himself, “I 
will get even with the Witch for 
making me work so hard all the af¬ 
ternoon.” And the next time the 





Witch was away, the Tajar thought 
of a fine plan. He took the Witch’s 
teacups, and he loosened the lower 
ends of their handles. Then he 
taught them all to do death-defying- 
life-leaps through the branches, with 
their handles. There was one teacup 
that was a specially stylish cup and 
had two handles. That one could do 
specially fine death - defying - life - 
leaps. And after that, whenever the 
Witch was out gathering herbs, the 
Tajar used to train the cups a little, 
and finally, when he got them thor¬ 
oughly trained, he started them all 
to doing death - defying - life - leaps 
through the branches by the handles, 







just as the Witch was getting home. 

When the Witch saw this going 
on, she became very much excited 
and very indignant and almost hys¬ 
terical. Then the Range Ranger, 
who ranges the ranges in that region, 
saw that something was going on at 
the Camp, and he came across the 
ranges straight to the Camp. The 
Witch saw him, and she said to him, 
“See what the Tajar has taught my 
teacups to do!” And sure enough, 
there were all the teacups doing 
death-defying-lif e-leaps. 

Then the Range Ranger said, 
“Tajar, Tajar, did you teach the 
Witch’s teacups to do death-defying- 














life-leaps through the branches by 
their handles?” 

And the Tajar said, “Yessir!” 

Then the Range Ranger said, 
“Very well, discipline must be main¬ 
tained. Just for that you can’t go 
swimming for a week.” Then the 
Range Ranger went away. 

But the Tajar thought to himself, 
“I don’t think that’s much punish¬ 
ment. I never went swimming.” 

And the next day the Tajar went 
down to see if there was a place where 
you could go swimming, and there 
was a fine place. And the next day 
after that the Tajar went down to 
the creek and he went swimming. He 


couldn't get downt. 





swam and he swam, and his tucks felt 
kind of queer, but he pretended not 
to notice, and he had a lovely time. 

Then he came out, and he ran 
quickly up the hill, and jumped into 
his Hiding Place, so that the Witch 
wouldn’t see that he had been swim¬ 
ming. But his tucks had shrunk, 
and he couldn’t get down from his 
Hiding Place, once he had got up, 
because his front legs were too short, 
and wouldn’t reach the Ladder 
Thing. 

The next day the Range Ranger, 
who ranges the ranges in that region, 
came across the ranges and he saw 
the Witch, but he didn’t see the 
Tajar. 



OW rntuck*'* 0 




And he said, “Tajar, Tajar!” 

And the Tajar, who was in his 
Hiding Place, said, “Yessir,” but he 
didn’t come. 

Then the Range Ranger went to 
the Tajar’s Hiding Place, and he 
stood in front of the Tajar, and he 
said, “Tajar, Tajar. Show me your 
tucks.” And the Tajar showed him 
his tucks. And the Range Ranger 
said, “Tajar, have you been swim¬ 
ming?” And the Tajar said, “Yes- 
sir!” Then the Range Ranger said, 
“Very well, you went swimming, and 
you have shrunk your own tucks, and 
now you can’t get down from your 
Hiding Place. You will have to 
stay there for a week,” 


And, sure enough, the Tajar had 
to stay in his Hiding Place for a 
week. But after that the Bange 
Ranger came, and he put another 
rung in the Ladder Thing, so that 
the Tajar could reach. And after 
that he went swimming whenever he 
wanted to. 



Children.please unpin 


iVtat magic! 


3ajarr 


And wh&i happened 
next we do not know 


fOULD you believe it, 
r that is the last that has 
been heard of the 
')) Tajar from that day 
to this? Perhaps he 
made a magic on Miss Jane Shaw 
Ward so that she couldn’t tell any 
more stories about him; but it is 
more likely that the Witch made a 
Magic around him and pinned a 
Magic on his back. Then, of course, 
even the Range Ranger couldn’t 
find him. If you should ever see 



a pin in a strange place where it 
doesn’t in the least belong, be most 
careful how you handle it. For if 
it should be the one that holds on 
the Tajar’s Magic, and he should 
suddenly appear before you, it 
would take you days and days to 
forget what he looked like, and if 
you chanced to see him twice and 
you forgot to forget what he looked 
like, that would be quite fatal. 





THE PICTURE MAN’S 
MESSAGE 


O UT of the Tajar’s country 
came the following sug¬ 
gestions for Tajar Pictures 
in Tajar’s Own Book. These will 
be very interesting and entirely 
clear to children , but I doubt if the 
grown-ups will consider them de¬ 
tailed enough. I therefore give 
them to the children to fit into their 
lively imaginations about their 
friend Mr. Tajar* 

Herman Drucklieb 
(. Illustrator) 


0 ) Tucks 









(2)Portrait of Jajar ujVten invisible- 




(4) Folly goind 
to Jajar\s 
Head 


C5) Filled voilH 



(5) Death - defying leaps 























& 79 




























































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